BRITISH 19TH-CENTURY NOVEL IN RUSSIAN: THREE CENTURIES OF TRANSLATION

Abstract

For over two hundred years, 19th-century British literature was being translated in Russia. The process of literary translation has suffered two radical changes in translation norm within that time. The first had happened after the 1917 revolution; the second after the perestroika of the early 1990s. Before the revolution there were no established principles of translation: very often different translations of the same text were published at the same time; in some cases translation was reduced to retelling the story. In the Soviet era there was a concept of the ultimate ‘ideal’ translation of each work of literature, but the question of the translation method came into dispute. Initially translation accuracy was recognized as the most important factor, but later so called ‘formalism’ was stigmatized and more domesticating method was recognized as the only proper approach. After perestroika multiple translations of the same text started to appear, and the translations of the 19thcentury came back into print. The article reviews the details of each of those periods, the influence of economic, cultural, and political issues on publishing practice, methods of translation and commentary, problems of authorship, editing, censorship, and the choice of target audience. Particular attention is paid to the practice of reusing pre-revolution translations. The problem of professional translation criticism that could help readers make sense of several coexisting translations, is discussed.